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Message:: [QUOTE="Dafydd, post: 26618473, member: 86815"]The Wreck of the SS Elingamite. This set of shipwreck coins arrived today from Australia and there was a bonus as the seller had not listed the fact it was contained in a faux leather case. Before I bought this set. I pondered over the fact that the ship was wrecked in New Zealand waters carrying a bullion cargo of British coins. I had assumed that New Zealand and Australia had their own coinage in 1902 as I knew for a fact that Australia minted its own sovereigns. This is the story of the SS Elingamite abridged from a book I was able to find on the subject. The book arrived a couple of weeks before the coins did and I can thoroughly recommend the book. [ATTACH=full]1696906[/ATTACH] History Name        SS Elingamite Owner       Huddart Parker Builder       C.S. Swan & Hunter, Newcastle upon Tyne, England Yard number       129 Launched   6 August 1887 Completed  Sep 1887 Fate  Sank 9 November 1902 General characteristics Type Passenger steamer Tonnage    2,585 GRT Length       320 ft (98 m) Beam 40 ft 9 in (12.42 m) Depth        22 ft 3 in (6.78 m) Propulsion  Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company triple-expansion compound steam engines Sail plan     Schooner-rigged Speed        11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) Capacity    200 passengers SS Elingamite was a passenger steamer that wrecked on November 9, 1902, off the Three Kings Islands, north of New Zealand. The reason it was carrying English coins—and why that seems confusing given the date—comes down to how colonial currency worked at the turn of the century. Why was it carrying "English" coins? While Australia and New Zealand were becoming self-governing (Australia federated in 1901), they did not yet have their own unique national coinage for silver and copper. <ul> <li>British Silver and Copper: In 1902, both Australia and New Zealand still used standard British Imperial coinage (pounds, shillings, and pence) minted in London. Australia didn't issue its own distinct silver coins until 1910, and New Zealand didn't issue its own until 1933. I thought I had seen earlier dated coins but was mistaken. </li> <li>The "Gold" Exception: Australia actually did mint its own gold sovereigns (at branches of the Royal Mint in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth), but even these used British designs.</li> <li>The Consignment: The Elingamite was carrying 52 boxes of coins (roughly £17,320 in value, or millions today) intended to replenish the cash reserves of New Zealand banks. Most of these were freshly minted 1902 silver coins and gold half-sovereigns.</li> </ul>The Tragedy of the Elingamite The ship was traveling from Sydney to Auckland in a thick fog. Because the Three Kings Islands were incorrectly charted at the time (they were actually several miles away from where the maps said they were), the ship struck West Island and sank in just 20 minutes. It was travelling at very low speed when it struck but that couldn’t save it. <ul> <li>Casualties: 45 people died. Some survivors spent days on life rafts with almost no food or water.</li> <li>Exoneration: The captain, Ernest Attwood, was initially blamed and lost his license. It wasn't until years later, when the HMS Terra Nova (the ship from Scott's Antarctic expedition) re-surveyed the area and proved the charts were wrong, that he was exonerated. I collected Polar Medals for many years and conducted some original research on the Terra Nova and Discovery expeditions but this fact had slipped by me.</li> </ul>The wreck became legendary because of the bullion. It lies in about 50 meters of water, which was extremely dangerous for divers in the early 20th century. Several divers died of "the bends" in 1907 trying to recover the coins. In the 1960s, famous treasure hunter Kelvin (Kelly)  Tarlton led successful dives that recovered thousands of coins. 500 sets of coins were put together by the salvage team and this is one of them.Many of the coins recovered were date 1902 ,the year of the ships loss. My set consists of a  1900 dated Half crown and Florin and a Shilling dated 1888. The set included a leaflet which also acts as a COA although the slab is evidence enough of origin. An 1821 George 111 Crown was also recovered during salvage operations and it is speculated that this was part of the personal effects of a passenger.I found a book authored by Wade Doak one of the syndicate divers and it makes fascinating reading both in respects of some meticulous research into the circumstances of the shipwreck and historical salvage attempts. He interviewed the son of one of the divers who sadly died during the 1907 salvage operations and was able to gift him a recovered coin which was a nice poignant gesture. The salvage of Tarlton's team was pretty unorganised and adventurous by today's standards. The wreck lays in 150 foot of water, situated in treacherous waters and the team were limited by the number of air cylinders they could take to the wreck which was a couple of days journey from the mainland. They had no access to medical or decompression facilities and supplemented their diet by spearfishing huge Kingfish ( up to 100 pounds in weight ). True adventurers. Their ambition was to recover at that time the equivalent of about $20,000 dollars using the most basic of equipment. [ATTACH=full]1696914[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1696917[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1696918[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1696919[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]

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